July 16, 2013

Squeetus summer book club: The Goose Girl, chapter 12

Eyes the color of warmed honey

Generally in life, we don't notice or remember people's eye colors unless they are very close to us. (do you know your neighbors', teachers', acquaintances' eye colors?) When the main character notices someone's eye color, it means something. Intimacy or a desire for intimacy is introduced.

Ani and Geric talk

I love conversation. I remember when writing The Goose Girl, I was coming off years of writing short stories, where dialog is not nearly as important (at least in the kinds of stories I was writing) and I didn't feel confidence in my dialog abilities. This book was really where I taught myself how to write dialog. Writers note: dialog should never be used for exposition. It is a tool for character and relationship development.

pg 187 "ponies and dragons and large bosomed women"

I get lots of emails telling me that my books are inappropriate for this or that reason. I remember being surprised that someone was offended by this line, however. They believed the word "bosom" shouldn't be in a children's book. But if I hadn't included it, then the Society for the Preservation of the Noble Bosom would have been after me. (I'm kidding. There's no such Society. Or is there...?)

pg 193, "Razo just patted her shoulder and looked down"

Poor Razo! He's in love with Bettin! So many stories going on besides the one the narrator tells.

pg 196, "a faint silvery line of cheek and chin"

This line was meant to echo another from an earlier scene between Ani and Selia, to contrast Selia with Enna. I don't mention all the times I do that kind of stuff because it would get tiresome.

pg 198

I just love Enna. That last paragraph makes me happy.

I dug up the original notes I wrote when first brainstorming ideas for this novel. As you can see, some I used and some I didn't. "Senego" was my placeholder name for "Bayern"

She doesn’t want to get married. She has siblings that can rule, and so sacrifices to marry a neighboring prince, for financial reasons. Kingdom in trouble, had been at war, resources limited, etc. is content to tend geese. Lady-in-waiting is bitter, wants to marry prince and break ties with former country. Start war. She must out herself to save country.

Meets Wilder while he is unsuccessfully maneuvering a horse, she can see what the horse needs from her long intimacy with Falada.

On the trip to Senego, someone should die early, perhaps a dissenter, and they make it look like an accident but Talone is suspicious.

Reminiscent of the city of towers she built with her blocks, capital of Sennego has many towers like Verona.

Maybe Susena or Napralina could travel to Sennego to live with her sister or attend the wedding and be stopped by the greenwitch before Selia found out and had her killed. Could join Ani.Ani plaits her hair in a crown while tending geese. It’s her first acknowledgment of her inheritance, acceptance of her role and duty. Another servant begins to call her queen of the geese, or geese queen.

Run out of space, pela moves in with ani, and sees her hair. Curdkin catches glimpse of ani’s hair and tells others, who don’t believe him, because pela backs up the lie and the color of her brows. He wants to steal a strand for proof. (Pela was Enna and Curdkin was Conrad)

Wow!-- I never would have guessed that your place-holder name for Enna was Pela (as you actually use that name later on). To be perfectly honest, I am SO glad that you decided on Enna-- it fits her so perfectly!

This time around, I read the original fairytale just before starting Goose Girl and so found this parallel. In the original fairytale, the Goose Girl first confesses her real identity to (inside) an iron stove, and in your book she first confesses to Enna, who is also full of fire in more ways than one. Was that the inspiration for Enna's interest in fire, or is that a reach more suited for a high school English paper?

Your note on eye color was really interesting. I hadn't realized that before but it makes so much sense now why the love interest's eye color is always emphasized in a story. I've always wondered this, but when you write a story, do you have a specific theme/moral in mind that you want to portray, or does the story form one on it's own. Or is it different with each book?